492: mornING, evenING, and gloamING Apr 13, 2016

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Why do many of the different times of day end with "-ing"‽ The answer––like a good dinner party––begins with the evening. 'Evening' comes from the Old English 'ǣfnung' the infinitive of which is 'ǣfnian' meaning ‘approach evening,’ and ultimately is derived from 'ǣfen' meaning 'to make even', since the evening is a point of equal night and day. This makes 'evening' a conjugated verb (truly, a participle). The literary term 'gloaming' was formed from the Old English 'glōm' ('twilight) for the same reason. 'Morning' was until recently commonly called 'morn', but by the same pattern as 'evening' people started to add the '-ing'. 'Morn', 'even', and 'eve' all are still words though rarely used.

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